phobias

• what is a phobia


  an irrational fear of an object or situation
• what categories of phobias does dsm 5 recognise of phobia?

  -specific phobia: phobia of an object e.g animal or a situation e.g flying

  -social anxiety: phobia of a social situation e.g public speaking

  -agoraphobia: phobia of being outside or public place
• what are the 3 behavioural charcteristics of phobias?

  -panic: person may panic in presence of phobic stimulus. e.g may involve behaviours such as crying or screaming

  -avoidance: tend to go on a lot of effort to prevent coming into contact with phobic stimulus e.g fear of public toilets may mean person will limit time spent outside

  -endurance: when person chooses to remain in presence of phobic stimulus e.g person with arachnophobia may remain in room with a spider
• what are 3 emotional charcteristics of phobias?

  -anxiety: involve an emotional response of anxiety. an unpleasant state of high arousal preventing a person from relaxing and experience any positive emotion. can be long-term

  -fear: the immediate and extremely unpleasant response. usually more intense but experienced for shorter period than anxiety

  -emotional response is unreasonable: the anxiety or fear is much greater than is normal e.g person with arachnophobia will have a strong emotional response to a tiny spider
• what are the 3 cognitive characteristics of phobias?

  -selective attention to the phobic stimulus: hard to look away from phobic stimulus

  -irrational beliefs: may hold unfounded thoughts in relation to phobis stimuli e.g social phobias may involve beliefs like if i blush ppl will think im weak this increases pressure on person to perform well

  -cognitive distortions: perceptions of a person with a phobia may be inaccurate and unrealistic e.g an ophidiophobic may see snakes as alien and agressive looking